the Week of Proper 20 / Ordinary 25
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New Living Translation
Psalms 82:5
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Concordances:
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- InternationalParallel Translations
They do not know and do not understand;They walk about in darkness;All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They do not know nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They knowe nothyng, they vnderstande nothing: they walke on styll in darknesse, [wherfore] all the foundations of the earth be out of course.
They know not, neither do they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are moved.
They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
They neither know nor will understand; they walk in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
"They don't know what is happening. They don't understand! They don't know what they are doing. Their world is falling down around them!"
They don't know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They know not, neither wil they vnderstand; they walke on in darknes: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
Neuertheles, they wil not be lerned & vnderstonde, but walke on still in darcknesse: therfore must all the foundacions of the londe be moued.
Ignorant judges! Head-in-the-sand judges! They haven't a clue to what's going on. And now everything's falling apart, the world's coming unglued.
The rulers do not know nor do they understand; They walk on in the darkness [of complacent satisfaction]; All the foundations of the earth [the fundamental principles of the administration of justice] are shaken.
They know not, neither do they understand; They walk to and fro in darkness: All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They have no knowledge or sense; they go about in the dark: all the bases of the earth are moved.
They don't know, neither do they understand; They walk to and fro in darkness: All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
They neither know nor understand. They stumble around in the dark, while all the foundations of the earth crumble.
"None of you know or understand a thing. You live in darkness, while the foundations of the earth tremble.
They don't know, they don't understand, they wander about in darkness; meanwhile, all the foundations of the earth are being undermined.
They knowe not and vnderstand nothing: they walke in darkenes, albeit all the foundations of the earth be mooued.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They don't know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the eretz are shaken.
They know not, neither do they understand; they go about in darkness;
They know nothing; they understand nothing. They walk around in the dark. All that the earth is built upon is shaking.
They know not, nor understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth shall be shaken.
They know not, neither do they understand; they walk to and fro in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are moved.
They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk around in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They know not, neither can they perceive, In darkness, they wander, All the foundations of the earth do shake.
(81-5) They have not known nor understood: they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth shall be moved.
They do not know or consider. They go about in the darkness, so that all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
They do not know nor do they understand; They walk around in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
"You know nothing. You don't understand. You walk in the dark, while the world is falling apart.
"How ignorant you are! How stupid! You are completely corrupt, and justice has disappeared from the world.
They do not know or understand; they wander in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Thei knewen not, nether vndirstoden, thei goen in derknessis; alle the foundementis of erthe schulen be moued.
They knew not, nor do they understand, In darkness they walk habitually, Moved are all the foundations of earth.
They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Contextual Overview
A psalm of Asaph.
God presides over heaven's court; he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings: 2 "How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked? Interlude 3 "Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. 4 Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people. 5 But these oppressors know nothing; they are so ignorant! They wander about in darkness, while the whole world is shaken to the core.Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
They: That is, the judges know not.
know not: Psalms 53:4, Proverbs 1:29, Micah 3:1, Romans 1:28
walk: Proverbs 2:13, Proverbs 4:19, Ecclesiastes 2:14, John 3:19, John 12:35, 1 John 2:11
all the: etc. All the civil institutions of the land totter. Psalms 11:3, Psalms 75:3, Ecclesiastes 3:16, Isaiah 5:7, 2 Timothy 2:19
out of course: Heb. moved
Reciprocal: Psalms 14:2 - any Psalms 99:1 - earth Proverbs 9:18 - he John 10:6 - they understood not John 19:13 - and sat 1 John 1:6 - walk 1 John 2:9 - is in
Gill's Notes on the Bible
They knew not,.... The Targum adds, to do well. This is to be understood of unjust judges and wicked magistrates, who know not God, and have not the fear of him before their eyes, though he stands in the midst of them, and judges among them; which is the source of their unjust judging and unrighteous proceedings: for because they know not God, nor fear him, therefore they regard not men: nor do such know themselves; they are called gods, and they think they are so, and do not consider they are but men; they are the ministers of God, deputies under him, and are accountable to him: nor do they know their duty before pointed out; it is for them to know judgment, what is right, and what is wrong, that they may pronounce righteous judgment, Micah 3:2, but they do not know it, at least so as to practise it: nor did the Jewish rulers know Christ, which was the reason of their unrighteous dealing with him and with his followers; they put him to death, and so they did them, because they knew him not, 1 Corinthians 2:8,
neither will they understand: the Targum adds, by way of explanation, "the law", the rule of judgment, which judges ought to understand; so the Jewish rulers, Pharisees and Sadducees, were upbraided by Christ with ignorance of the Scriptures, and the law of God, their false glosses of which he refutes, Matthew 5:1 and their ignorance was wilful and affected, they shut their eyes against light and evidence, especially with respect to Christ; they could discern the face of the sky, but not the signs of the times, Matthew 16:3, who so blind as they that will not see? and such were the Jewish rulers; see Isaiah 42:19,
they walk on in darkness; they chose darkness rather than light, and so were blind leaders of the blind, and were wilfully so, having their eyes blinded with gifts, Deuteronomy 16:19,
all the foundations of the earth are out of course; or "shaken" or "moved" f: by the perversion of justice, towns, cities, commonwealths, kingdoms, and states, are thrown into the utmost disorder and confusion: as the king by judgment establisheth the land;
Proverbs 29:4, so when judgment is not executed, it is unsettled, and thrown into confusion; or though g "the foundation", c. though this is the case, yet unjust judges will go on, perverting judgment, even though, as at the deluge, the foundations of the earth were shaken and moved, for the violence, rapine, and oppression, the earth was then filled with, which Kimchi thinks is here referred to and though a dissolution of the Jewish polity, civil and ecclesiastical, was threatened, because of such injustice; that God would once more shake the heavens and the earth, remove their church and civil state, when they should cease to be a nation, their city be destroyed, and their temple, not one stone left upon another; and yet such was the obstinacy of their wicked judges, that they would persist their wicked ways.
f ימוטו "moventur", Vatablus; "dimoventur", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "commoventur", Gejerus; "nutant", Tigurine version. g So Ainsworth.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
They know not, neither will they understand - This is designed still further to characterize the magistrates at the time referred to in the psalm. They not merely judged unjustly, and were not merely partial in the administration of justice Psalms 82:2, but they did not desire to understand their duty, and the true principles on which justice should be administered. They were at no pains to inform themselves, either in regard to those principles, or in regard to the facts in particular cases. All just judgment must be based
(a) on a true knowledge of what the law is, or what is right; and
(b) on a knowledge of the facts in a particular case. Where there is no such knowledge, of course there must be a mal-administration of justice.
One of the first requisites, therefore, in a magistrate is, that he shall have a proper knowledge of the law; his duty is to ascertain the exact facts in each individual case that comes before him, and then impartially to apply the law to that case.
They walk on in darkness - In ignorance of the law and of the facts in the case.
All the foundations of the earth - See Psalms 11:3, note; Psalms 75:3, note. All settled principles; all the things on which the welfare of society rests; all on which the prosperity of the world depends. The manner in which justice is administered is as if the very foundations of the earth should be disturbed, and the world should move without order.
Are out of course - Margin, as in Hebrew, moved. That is, they are moved from their proper place; the earth no longer rests firmly and safely on its foundation. This language is taken from the idea so often occurring in the Scriptures, and in the language of people generally, that the earth rests on solid foundations - as a building does. The idea is derived from the stability and fixedness of the earth, and from the fact that when a building is fixed and stable we infer that it has a solid foundation. The thought here is, that a proper administration of justice is essential to the stability and prosperity of a state - as essential as a solid foundation is to the stability of the edifice which is reared on it. The effect of a real-administration of justice in any community may be well compared with what the result would be if the foundations of the earth should be removed, or if the laws which now keep it in its place should cease to operate.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Psalms 82:5. They know not — The judges are not acquainted with the law of God, on which all their decisions should be founded.
Neither will they understand — They are ignorant and do not wish to be instructed. They will not learn; they cannot teach. Happy England! How different from Judea, even in the days of Jehoshaphat! All thy judges are learned, righteous, and impartial. Never did greater men in their profession dignify any land or country. - (1822.)
All the foundations of the earth — "All the civil institutions of the land totter." Justice is at the head of all the institutions in a well regulated state: when that gets poisoned or perverted, every evil, political and domestic, must prevail; even religion itself ceases to have any influence.
